Design and Comparative Analysis on Real-Time Trade of Road Priority in Connected Traffic

Abstract

New technologies present opportunities to re-think the real-time traffic operation. Trade of road priority using schemes such as auctions, credits, and direct-transactions, provides a novel way to better serve heterogeneous traffic demands in the future connected environment. Implementations of these schemes come with a common phenomenon called the network effect, meaning that the value of the scheme depends heavily on the percentage of travelers that subscribe to this scheme. To encourage travelers to be subscribers, the traffic operator needs to reasonably consider the treatments for both subscribers and outsiders, and have the knowledge of each scheme's impact on individuals and society. Only in this way can the government choose an appropriate scheme that will be accepted by the public. However, most existing studies simply assumed a 100% of subscribers and ignored the travelers' autonomy and smartness in choice behavior. Such neglect may easily render the economic schemes failed in practice due to public resistance or loss in subscribers. To fill up this research gap, this paper designs treatments to both subscribers and outsiders for different schemes in intersection operations. We investigate travelers' choice behaviors under different scenarios, and make comparative analysis about individual benefits, social benefit, and social equity between different schemes. The findings of this paper can support the government's decision on the system design of road priority trading.